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As December approaches so does the manic fretting around Christmas presents for children; I personally struggle at this time with the ‘buying for the sake of buying’ that seems to grip this nation. Books make great presents of course, but I have never hidden my enthusiasm for good quality children’s magazines, and I think Christmas is the perfect time to gift a magazine subscription. Not only you are giving the gift of reading (and the kind of reading that might entice those who say they do not like books) but it is a Christmas gift that lasts all year! And we know how much children (and teens!) love to receive post!

Great magazines have been showcased here in the past, and Scoop magazine is no exception. Beautifully packaged, it includes many features, from stories to comic strips, non-fiction features, puzzles and book reviews specially commissioned from authors and illustrators and is suitable for children aged 8 onwards:

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I am delighted to welcome Clementine Macmillan Scott, founder of Scoop, to talk to us about children’s magazines and the inspiration behind Scoop.

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Children’s Magazines
by Clementine Macmillan-Scott, founder of Scoop

The idea for Scoop came about as I was researching for a book about childhood in the 1930’s. There was a wonderful newspaper called The Children’s Newspaper which ran from 1919 to 1965, when it merged with Look and Learn. The founder and editor of the paper, Arthur Mee, had a clear objective, to inform children through narrative. One story in particular caught my eye, which was about children who lived on canal boats in London and how they went to school. He was telling a story and also giving his readers a sense of the wider world. I wondered if anything like this existed today and I began to do a different sort of research.

There are of course many plastic-coated, TV-branded magazines that line the shelves of supermarkets. But there are also some wonderful magazines and newspapers for children today, all independently run and beautifully put together and designed. All our readers are often also fans of Aquila, Anorak, Okido, The Week Junior, and they often read First News at school. Each of these magazines has its own angle and age group, they might be design led, or based on current affairs or educational.

At Scoop we aim to publish the best story telling we can for 8 to 12 year olds. Every month we commission leading authors and illustrators to create original content. As most of us at Scoop have a background in children’s books we are very much want to celebrate such an exciting time in children’s literature. Our editor Sarah Odedina says:

‘It is a great time to be a young reader in terms of the wealth of choice, the range of voices, and the quality of the stories on offer. It is now possible for the first time, I believe, to see a truly golden world of literature that offers access to all children and all authors, albeit the dawn of that wonderful epoch.’

Scoop is a wonderful way to showcase new talent and offer readers a way of discovering what is out there. We speak to our readers often and also invite them to write for us and their parents and teachers look forward to sharing it with them. We often hear adults saying they read the magazine too! Scoop is a mixture of fiction and non-fiction and we make sure that we have comics and puzzles and activities too so that there are as many ways in to reading and creativity as possible. A magazine is a wonderful present for any child, it arrives every month through the letterbox and offers a world of different voices and points of view.

Our upcoming issue for December focuses on feasting and food and it is a wonderful way to start a subscription!

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Thank you so much Clementine for this lovely guest post.

Scoop have a special Christmas gift subscription webpage.
When buying from the page, those who have purchased a subscription will receive a link to download a gift card and all orders from that page will be sent out by the Scoop team on December 15th in an envelope marked Do Not Open Before December 25th​! Don’t miss out!